Christopher Columbus found America by accident. He was looking for a new route to the far east, but he found America instead. Conquistadors came looking for gold and fame at any cost. Colonization had a big impact on the people that got conquered because many of them died due to the diseases brought by the Europeans such as smallpox, influenza, and measles. Others were casualties of the conquest, and many became slaves. The Indians' culture was destroyed because the Spanish believed that the Indians worshipped the devil and that they needed to be converted to Christianity. The Spanish conquistadors justified colonization as a way to expand Catholicism and to gain a commercial advantage over Portugal. In my opinion, their justification is not